Levi Jordan
Plantation

The "Bone and Shell Carver's Cabin"

This carved shell "cameo" was found in
the slave quarters of this plantation, and was made by
one of the people who lived there. This person lived and
worked in what we now call the "Shell Carver's
Cabin".

The items
found in this cabin constitute a large percentage of all
of the carved bone found on African-American sites across
the entire south. They are remarkable not only because,
simply, they exist, but also because some of them are
beautiful and, even more importantly, they illustrate the
ways that Africans, later African Americans, found to
"connect" to the homes they were forced to
leave. According to census records, several people living
on the plantation came directly from Africa  these
objects were expressions of the power of the African
religions they and their ancestors practiced.

Taken in context with each other, the artifacts
in this cabin show that someone was working with shell
and bone to create a variety of objects. Included are
tools that could have been used to manufacture carved
shell and bone items (several knives, files, a metal
punch, two small drills, a small saw blade, and grinding
and shaping tools made of bone), as well as a sandstone
cobble and shell "blanks" for carving. . Also
included was an unfinished shell "cameo",
including a metal base which may have been planned for
use as a "finding" for hanging as a pendant.

You can learn
more about this cabin area with some additional links.
One goes to a page with excerpts from some of Ken Brown's published work. Another goes to an interview with Robert Harris, a
student who is doing detailed analysis of this cabin
area. Robert's interview includes lots of the data he is
working with: drawings, sketches, photographs and so
forth.

Picture of floor of shell
carver's cabin, during excavation. Oval shape in the
middle is the carved "cameo", at top of page.
The "cameo" was surrounded by carving and
shaping tools.

Sandstone cobble and shell
"blanks" for carving. Note the scratch marks on
the cobble. The holes on the shells could have been made
by rubbing them against this stone; "natural"
holes on such shells are more regular and smooth than
these, which appear to have been sanded or punched out.

Here is a carved bone object found elsewhere in
the deposit, but it is believed that it was carved by the
person who carved other shell and bone objects. For more
discussion of this object, go to the page on the "Political Leader's
Cabin".